Saving the Small Town Grocery Store

A small grocery store anchors one end of Main Street in the town the Center for Rural Affairs calls home.

If you live in a rural community, you understand that our grocery store is arguably one of the most important businesses in town. Our store means more than just ready access to healthy food. Rural grocery stores provide jobs and generate tax revenue. Without a local grocery, the revenue that our food purchases generate goes elsewhere.

Having a grocery store also helps attract new residents to a town. Similar to a school, a post office, restaurants and churches, a grocery store makes a community a more attractive place to live. Grocery stores can also be social places where you run into neighbors in the produce aisle, introduce yourself to someone new in town, or catch up on local happenings with the cashier.

Not all small towns are as lucky as we are. The lack of a grocery store means residents have less access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetables, and the elderly and others without reliable transportation will tend to buy their food at convenience stores with more limited selections or go for longer periods of time between visits to the store.

These are just some of the reasons why the local grocery store is a crucial part of any viable community.

On this page, you'll find information, resources and ideas about the preservation of the rural grocery store. You might be interested in the Rural Grocery Toolkit, a step-by-step guide for those who want to open a store or who already own one.

Part II: The ChallengesSmall town grocery stores face many of the same hurdles that any small business might in a rural community. But, they also face several that are unique to the grocery industry, including: meeting minimum buying requirements; competing with big chains; access to fresh produce; and high energy costs. This piece explores those challenges and offers solutions for meeting them. [More...]

Part III: Federal Resources Can Assist Rural Grocery StoresThis piece highlights some of the federal programs that can be used to support, expand, and update rural grocery stores to help them compete in today’s marketplace, including Rural Business Enterprise grants, Community Food Projects and assistance through the Rural Energy for America Program, among others. [More...]

Other Center Articles:

8 Steps to Help Small Town Grocery StoresEveryone needs to eat. Having a grocery store is more than just a place to buy food. It’s a necessity for any vibrant town. Is your town’s grocery store struggling? Or have you lost your grocery store? Here are some simple first steps to get a handle on that situation. (6/2012)

Rural Grocery Stores: Importance and Challenges (Opens pdf)This brief examines trends for rural grocery stores, reasons rural communities are losing grocery stores, and the personal and community implications when a community lacks a grocery store. It summarizes the issues and challenges facing rural grocery stores. 10/2010

The Local Grocery Store as Critical InfrastructureWhen exploring what infrastructure is critical to keeping a rural community vibrant, the Center for Rural Affairs staff kept coming up with two pieces: a school and a local grocery store. There are many more, to be sure, that contribute to a town's viability but the local grocery store is certainly among the first to mind. This piece explores that need. [More...]

America's Youngest Grocer: Nick GrahamAs the Center of Rural Affairs' Brian Depew wrote of the then 17-year-old Nick Graham, who brought and took over Truman, Minnesota’s only grocery store when it closed: "Rural main streets across America are struggling to survive, and the shuttering of a grocery store, drug store or hardware store is all too common. As Nick is demonstrating though, innovation, new energy, and the commitment of a new generation can help turn around the fate of a small town." [More...]

Your Small Town Grocery Store is a Rural Tourism AttractionIf you ask an urbanite why they go to the grocery store, they might look at you strangely, then answer, “To buy food, of course!” In small towns a grocery store is much more. It’s a place to meet friends, to get local news, an economic engine for a rural community and for many areas, it’s a rural tourism attraction. [more...]

The Small-Town Grocery Store: an Economic Necessity, Associated ContentVisitors from large cities often laugh at residents of tiny rural towns. They tease them about how they can live without major shopping malls, famous gourmet coffee shops, and well-known department stores. All of these are nice, but they are more luxury than necessity. What tends to hurt the economy of a small rural town is the lack of a grocery store. [More...]

Small Town Railies to Save Grocery Store, Ag JournalMarilyn McCaffrey has seen first-hand what a small town will do to keep its grocery store open. In the Eastern Colorado community where she grew up, she watched as leaders rallied to keep the grocery store she manages in business. "You can do it," she says. "But it takes a lot of time and money and effort from a lot of people." [More...]

Moville, Iowa Raises Money for Grocery Store, Omaha World-HeraldNancy Wiese's last-minute Thanksgiving run was much easier this year than last. On Wednesday, when she needed corn syrup for her sweet potatoes and pickled herring for the 12-person family celebration she was hosting, she made a quick trip to Chet's Foods, also known as the Moville Market. Last year, such a grocery run would have required a 35-mile round-trip expedition to Sioux City. [More...]

Petersburg, Nebraska Residents Rally to Save Grocery Store, Grand Island IndependentLarry Temme has poured himself into the Rae Valley Market in Petersburg since buying the tiny grocery store 17 months ago. But now, he’s about to reach his breaking point. Without any drastic changes, he doesn’t see the store making it to the end of the year. [More...]